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“We are told from a young age that we have to compete and crush to prove our worth.”

A thought by Jon Tyson from his book, The Burden Is Light: Liberating Your Life from the Tyranny of Performance and Success (p. 51). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

We are, and we do everything we can to make that happen, to prove our worth.

Jon says, “You may be a mother who competes with other moms to have the cleanest and most stylish home. You may be a father who competes with other dads to make the most money and be the best provider for your family. You may be a student who competes for grades or scholarships, a pastor who competes for Sunday attendance, or a sibling who competes for your parents’ attention. The winner script is buried somewhere deep in all our hearts. We need another author to write an alternative script that redirects the story of our lives.”

And that is the truth.

Jon says, “If we were to write the Gospels today, they would be infused with this winner script… For generations we have been trying to earn our Father’s applause by following this script.

Jon goes on, “The actual Gospels are not ordered like this. They show Jesus spending almost thirty years in relative obscurity. Before he healed a sick person, raised the dead, confronted hypocrisy, made disciples, preached to the crowds, and died and rose again, he was baptized. And at Jesus’s baptism, his Father declared, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’ (Matthew 3:17)

Jon then says, “Jesus hadn’t done anything public or important yet, so what could the Father have been pleased with? It’s simple. Relationship. Jesus spent thirty years abiding in his Father’s love, and that was enough. What pleased the Father was not Jesus’s accomplishments but his intimacy. This is the same thing that pleases him in our lives today. Because Jesus was aware of his Father’s approval before starting his ministry, he didn’t have to compete with others during his ministry. The Father’s approval gave Jesus the security to avoid an addiction to success and scandalously give his life away in love.

And that is the life script that God has for us.  We are truly called to be followers of Christ, to live as He did, not to be addicted to success but to scandalously give our life away in love?  Don’t you want to be a true follower of Christ?  Will you be one?

Yes, yes!
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